Last year the Aquaponic Gardener moved from Newcastle NSW to Cairns far north QLD to be closer to my sustainable agriculture projects that are ongoing in Papua New Guinea. It was a hard decision to leave Newcastle however here in Cairns the weather is great and I have re established in an old weatherboard Queenslander home on a big block of residential land. We are in the throws of converting it using sustainable new and old techniques and technology. Here in Cairns we have re-established a greenhouse with aquaponics and a wicking bed that grows all sorts of herbs, lettuce, tomatoes, celery, rhubarb, egg plants, mint, basil, peas and fruit trees seedlings.

So far we have about 30 varieties of fruit trees growing from seed including local bush foods. Everything is flourishing. The plan is to plant the entire boundary and be able to eat well an

Yesterday 6kw of solar panels went on the roof for sustainable energy .

Also have x7 native bee hives living in the walls of our home. I’ve built bee hive boxes and I’m coaxing bees out to re establish the native bee colonies into my man made boxes so I can get the honey. If that doesn’t work ill drill into my walls and stick a tap in them to get the honey. The grand plan is to stick hives on native bees in the green house to pollinate my aquaponically grown food and wicking beds.

Cairns Aquaponic garden and wicking bed just 4 months later flourishing with food

A recent edition this week was a 2m long black solider fly larvae monster breeding box that should become in a few months an automatic fish feeder by diverting food scraps and compost that the chickens and worms wont eat into a food resource in fly larvae (grubs /maggots) that ill feed to the 100 Barramundi and 50 Jade perch that I have growing.

Its a slow process moving to a new location and working in several developing countries and starting with a blank canvas of grass in the backyard. Its all coming together though and

already producing food. In time our Cairns house will become a landmark sustainable permaculture Cairns home and a showcase of what an average person can simply do at home using scraps of timber and free materials found anywhere to create something that can sustain large family.